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. Wednesday, 9:31

Amegakure .

Meet at Shigeki.

- Sakana

The cryptic message had been left in the mailbox of every single member of his team, save for Unagi, who simply had it slid under her door early in the morning, long before anyone should have been up. But for the trio of shinobi that served under Sakana, Shigeki must’ve been one of the most familiar places by now. It was a small restaurant not far from the Uragiri clan compound, located high in one of the many industrial skyscrapers, and home to almost every single team meeting Sakana held. It offered a perfect overview of the clan compound and – more importantly – the koi ponds themselves. And while Sakana was hard to read, it had been rather obvious to most that the koi ponds were one of his favorite places – it had been the first place they met after they were assigned to his team – team 3 – and where they had their first ‘test’ – a simple battle in the water, sloshing around while the koi tried to steer clear of the four of them.

The test had no real purpose other than to see how quickly the three of them would stop cannibalizing each other and instead turn on the real threat, Sakana. But when you tell three shinobi to spar, they tend to focus only on the winning. A valuable lesson was learned that day, at the very least.

As the team got together, they were served with a pot full of stew. A dreadful looking one – the water looked like mud – but one whose taste was unrivalled. “We’re on stand-by duty today,” Sakana told the trio. As per usual, Sakana was sitting on one side of the dining booth, while the other three were sitting together on the other side – even in their sitting arrangement, the hierarchy was quite clear. “So you know the drill,” he continued, “don’t stray from my side and keep your head down.”

Without even looking down, Sakana spooned a spoonful of stew into his mouth, his black eyes scanning the trio in front of him. They were certainly a team of characters – a golden boy, whose family had quite a reputation, Sakana’s own sister, who spent far too much time looking into a mirror, and an orphan, and a stubborn one at that. Usually teams were constructed by virtue of some sort of unifying strategy or capability, but this team seemed to be built mostly around how little they had in common.

“Gareki,” Sakana suddenly said, interrupting the silence, “chunin exams are going to take place in six months. I’m signing you up.” He continued to look at Gareki, his eyes peering through the younger boys’ eyes, looking for any hint of a reaction or a response that wasn’t words, before his eyes fell on the two chunin that flanked Gareki. “You guys passed the test a year ago, so you’ll be helping me get Gareki ready. I’ll be satisfied when—”

The door to the restaurant suddenly slammed open, an alarmed shinobi running in. This was strange, since the only form of conventional business that Shigeki’s restaurant seemed to have was team 3’s visits. Otherwise, the place was more or less empty all the time. “Team 3, you are needed at the eastern border – Konohagakure forces are trespassing and the Amekage has summoned you to respond!”

For a brief moment, Sakana paused, looked at the shinobi, then looked back to his team. “—… when he can take you both on at the same time. Practice whenever we aren’t on standby duty.” Once he had finished his sentence, Sakana slipped to the side of the booth and stood up, stretching his hands, and then his arms. “Been a while,” he said, finishing his slight stretches, and gesturing to his team. When they left, he put some money onto the table to pay for the stew that they’d barely gotten to touch.

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. Wednesday, 9:46

Amegakure Eastern Border .

Traveling towards the eastern border was not an affair that usually took long at all, and the team arrived more or less precisely on time. Border response was a natural part of the work of an Amegakure shinobi, so for most of them except for perhaps Gareki, this would probably not be the first time they performed such an impromptu mission.

When team 3 arrived at the spot, it was pretty clear that shinobi had passed through here. There were footprints on the small clearing in the forest, leading east to west – Konohagakure forces, most likely, heading from Konoha to Iwagakure or Sunagakure. Perhaps on a mission.

However, mission or not, it was not permitted for foreign shinobi to travel in and out of Amegakure without explicit written permission from the Amekage. And if these shinobi had permission, then the seal on the writ would’ve prevented the barrier team from noticing the entry of these shinobi.

The solution was clear – the Konoha shinobi needed to be removed from Amegakure or killed. Usually, shinobi caught with their pants down by Amegakure shinobi were happy to leave – there was plenty of war in general, there was no need to risk another one with Amegakure, a village who had not just made threats of assassination in the past, but had also made good on them. While an outright war with Amegakure would be over quickly, the fact that Amegakure could most likely assassinate high ranking targets and cripple an entire military decisively in the span of a month was enough deterrence for most villages to leave them alone – besides, the land Amegakure was built on wasn’t worth much.

But sometimes, shinobi’s pride got in the way, and they refused to leave.

As the team drew closer to the end of the tracks, they would slow down, avoiding a situation in which they might end up giving away their position. Beyond the treeline ahead of them, the shrouded figures of four shinobi moving around was hard to miss. A full team, perhaps?

Using the remarkable speed of a shinobi, Sakana jumped forwards into the clearing, maintaining distance between himself and the four unknown shinobi. Sakana had not explicitly ordered his team to do anything, and since they had been together for a year now, there was no reason for him not to trust their intuition and decisions. Whether they hid and waited, or joined Sakana in the field, Sakana would speak up to the four hooded figures.

“You’re trespassing. You need to leave Amegakure, and travel through the land of Grass to get to Iwagakure, and through the land of Rivers to get to Sunagakure.”

Caught off-guard, the foursome turned around and faced Sakana, revealing their faces in the sunlight that was starting to appear even through the thick Amegakure rain clouds. Their headbands bore the marks of Konohagakure, so their intel had been correct in that regard.

“By whose order?” the tallest of the four asked – a black haired man, a few years older than Sakana at the least.

“Mine,” came the reply from Sakana.

“We’re just passing through. We won’t take longer than an hour, we just want to rest here,” the man tried to argue, gesturing towards his three companions. They all seemed a little younger – roughly Unagi’s age, perhaps. Either genin or chunin – the lack of flak vests made it hard to tell.

One of the three younger shinobi had a large scroll on his back, protected on either side with a metal cap, preventing it from getting damaged if it accidentally bumped into anything. The other two wielded weapons – one, a large sword, the other two smaller swords, lighter and faster than the large sword. The man who was supposed to be the jonin was unarmed except for his shinobi pouch, which doubtlessly carried a great amount of kunai.

Sakana shook his head. “No. Rest when you leave Amegakure. You’re only an hour away from the border.”

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. Wednesday, 7:00

Amegakure .

The young lady of the Uragiri clan had woken up bright and early at six am, she was done picking out her outfit for the day, did her makeup and had even had breakfast. Her big brother, as well as jonin leader of her team was still asleep as far as he could tell - either that, or he was collecting the mission brief for the day, if any. She had errands to run, delivering some parcels for her parents, her dad needed letters he corresponded with a Academy-Training-Jonin in Kumogakure sent, and her mom had to order new scalpels and antibacterial materials from the factories in The Land Of Wind. Unagi made her way through the city of Amegakure, it was raining a little today, as most days so a small umbrella, which was as teal as her hair accompanied her. Protecting her hairstyle from the elements was certainly key to looking good in the city. She greeted some folks she knew that she passed by, but nobody struck up conversation with her. She did some grocery shopping, buying fresh fish and eggs and would then proceed to get home and put them into the fridge.

Once home, she would change her outfit into something lighter and do a quick workout. Bodyweight, yoga and agility, balancing on a beam on one hand at a time, that sort of stuff. Really simple but effective for keeping her sharp and in good shape and giving her a good start to the day. She went inside and made a cup of tea, while the tea cooled she put it on the table inside of her room and got into the shower. She hadn't worked up a sweat so there was no need to wash her hair or undo her makeup.

She dried off and was getting back into her clothes she had gone out in, when she noticed the note under her door from her brother. Once she was dressed, she did a quick touch-up in the mirror and then headed out towards the resturant. Shigeki had been a hangout place for her and Sakana growing up and it was kind of heartwarming that he chose it as their meeting spot for almost all of their meetings. She was standing in the elevator when she noticed Shogai in the lobby. The elevator doors were closing, and she wasn't gonna hold the elevator anyway. She caught his gaze and winked and waved at him as the doors closed completely, taking her up to Shigeki.

Once inside, she greeted her brother with a smile, ordering a drink, waiting for the first of the boys to get up there, as she always sat in the middle of the two boys, preventing any macho-in-fighting. Sakana sat opposed to her, he despised when she talked to him brotherly in official settings like this, so she'd only refer to him by his first name, or as sensei. Even though informal titels were a lot more fun and a hard habit to break.

"Standby-Duty, huh? Think we'll get to actually relax a little?" She said, feigning hope. She knew that no matter what, there would be no relaxing today. Either they would get called for a mission, or Sakana-Sensei would keep them busy otherwise. He then went on to talk about Gereki's Exams and how they would help him. Unagi didn't mind, helping a genin was after all an important job of a senior Chunnin, and the chance to show the boys a thing or two was never something she would pass down.
"Genin-Sitting in our sparetime sounds fun" She noted, taking a small bowl and pouring some of the stew up, she delicately put a spoon into the stew and lifted it to her mouth, blowing on it softly to make sure she wouldn't burn herself. She had already had a proper breakfast, but she knew it would be rude to not accept food when it was bought for her.

Luckily, she wouldn't have to stuff herself, as another shinobi showed up, to inform Team 3 of their mission of the day. Border Patrol. Unagi didn't mind, it was always interesting to protect the borders, most of the time it ended up in a lost of excuses and some flusters, and sometimes it ended in a small skirmish. And that one time, she even got to kiss a Kirigakure chunnin, what a loser he was.

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. Wednesday, 9:46

Amegakure Eastern Border

Unagi joined her sensei in approaching the trespassers. She knew that if chaos erupted, she'd be useful for mitigating a fight, and should the fighting occur, her place was in the midst of it. And her feminine vibes could certainly off-put some of the hostility her brother would put out. They tracked down the four shinobi who were breaking trespassing and quickly appeared behind Sakana once he landed and made contact. She remained relaxed in appearance, seemingly casual and not worried, while concealing her hyper-tension and focusing on the details of the group. Their weaponry, the scroll container certainly containing information or a jutsu - maybe their lunch, it was hard to tell and with no prior intel on the group, there were little grounds for team 3 to seize any of the Konohagakure shinobis possessions. The swords the younger shinobi had did look pretty cool, though. But nothing too fancy. One of them carried a two-handed wide-bladed broadsword, while the other carried blue hilt katana.

"There's a beautiful inn 45 minutes to the north, outside of our borders. Tell the owner that Amgekaure Shinobi sent you, and you'll get a mighty discount on your stay and a free meal." Unagi approached with a softer tone and a soft smile, urging them to leave.

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. Wednesday, 9:31

Amegakure .

The night before was the best night of his life. He had been surrounded by his friends, recalling stories of his exploits and his time with Team 3. They listened with the moxie of charmed children; laughing and being silent in all the right places. When he was done with his spell, they all strode out and reminisced on the balcony of his shoddy shelter. It was... odd and haunting; listening to them talk about their ordinary lives. The majority of orphans never made the cut to being official shinobi. Usually they just became street trash but a few were lucky enough to become 'ordinary'. This year was their last at the Orphanage and Gareki had the hunch that they were all frightened of their futures. As they well should've been. The world, Amekagure in particular, was unforgiving. It was the ambitious and downright reckless that really made ripples.

Needless to say, he went to bed rather late that night and when he woke, two of the five was still passed out on his floor.

He touched his ashened hair, ruffling strands and bangs from out his face. "Guess I'll let you sleep in..." he muttered to himself.

Even as he strode into Shigeki, his jaunty whistle was still leaving his mouth. He shook his crimson umbrella free of the rain and made a beeline for the rest of the team. A lazy, kinda drowsy "Morning," greeted, Murakami, Unagi, and Sakana.

Gareki ate greedily while filtering out his own chomping to hear Sakana. Mouth full, he glared up with disapproval. He was close to letting the curse-words fly. Standby-duty?! Just who the hell do they think we are? He hated it but through experience and harsh rebuttals, he knew griping about it wouldn't do anything. So he shook his head instead and kept grubbing down.

Then of course came the hammer on the nail. Even as he was falling into the comfortable silence, letting his stomach settle from the meal; Sakana's declaration made him jerk forward. "What!?" he barked, placing his hands firmly on the table. But as usual, Sakana-sensei left little room for argument. Which, typically, wouldn't stop him 'cept a random shinobi burst in with a mission-of-sorts. Frowning, Gareki understood that his chance for talk had passed. Crapstorm, he thought.

He drug himself up, mumbling quietly as they left Shigeki. "Ahh, c'mon, an exam? really? I'm just as strong as Mura and Unagi, I don't need some gloried test wasting my time." He growled in his throat, knowing the futility of it even as he continued. "All I really need is one big exploit. Not some fancy title. Shoot, anything Sakana-sensei can do, I can do. One battle, one situation to make me famous."

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. Wednesday, 9:46

Amegakure Eastern Border .

Throughout the small trek, Gareki had come to the realization that this situation could be his moment. To hell with taking an exam, I'll show my stuff here and now. Prove to Sakana-sensei that on good merits, I don't need no exam. I'm a Chunin without the vest. He felt exhilarated that he had come to the conclusion himself and that it hadn't taken much longer than a few minutes. Now all that remained was the question of how and the hope that a sticky situation would occur.

Not much longer and the four hooded figures had been found. Sakana-sensei leaped into the clearing and Gareki followed, landing two or three feet behind his sensei. There was something about the reality of the situation that had pushed his intent to the backburner. Instinctively, he felt a show of force was necessary. Four ninjas that encountered a lone one might buck-up. Even one more could deter that and Gareki was always ready for a good fight. Even as Unagi tried to talk them down, Gareki's hand was already on the hilt of his cherished: Kenma.

Looking at them, Gareki just got an urge to provoke, to attack really but that wouldn't fly. The ashen-haired teen smirked, "Resting," he laughed brazenly. " C'mon we're not idiots. You know the rules Leaf Ninja. I'd pack up, fast, the big-boss here won't say it again. Time to leave, saplings."

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. Wednesday, 9:34

Amegakure Border .

While the gaggle of Konohagakure shinobi had been relatively comfortable and confident in staring down Sakana in the brief moment it was just him standing there, the increasing number of Amegakure shinobi appearing seemingly out of nowhere slowly but surely made them retreat more and more into their shell. From all sides Sakana was suddenly flanked by big, angry dogs; all of them barking at the strangers in their backyard. Sakana was the one holding the leash – the only one of the Amegakure team that was mildly relaxed and serious, too, it seemed.

And while Sakana did not approve of their methods, it was hard to argue with the results – the cocky, taller team member opposite of him took a step back, flashing his teeth in a surprised glare at the four shinobi. “Ah,” Sakana said, his posture and stance, even his expression, remaining unchanged. “Are these your genin?” he then asked, looking at the three younger-looking shinobi. There was something odd about them, something that made it seem like things weren’t like they seemed.

“I—yeah, and what about it?” the tallest said, “we’re just on our way to the desert for a mission. Cut us some slack. We didn’t mean to trespass – it’s just that going straight through Amegakure would cut a few hours off our travel.” The man’s entire attitude changed a little, moving from his confident stance into a slightly more respectful and alert stance. It seemed that he was more than happy to mouth off against just Sakana, but with the other members of the team there, well, maybe not so much. Sakana couldn’t blame him – he’d been easy to underestimate all his life, so on his own he might not have looked like much. And, well, the other three looked equally as tough as he did. A formidable team in the eyes of any shinobi. The rest of the Konoha team seemed to share the same feelings of sudden unease, as the shortest of the three genin pulled out one of her swords, preparing it behind her while holding up her one hand, and revealing the tiger seal as her sleeve lowered when she raised her arm in preparation of a potential fight. It seemed she’d been prepared to fight from the start, having held the seal under her sleeve.

“That is not allowed by orders of the Amekage,” he stated, blandly, repeating what the others had said in a slightly different way. The Amegakure shinobi would clearly not be taking no for an answer. “Shinobi from Konohagakure have ravaged the countrysides of Amegakure enough. This is your punishment.”

The Konoha jonin’s eye twitched, before he looked back at his own team. The four of them shared a momentary glance that lasted perhaps two seconds, the short genin nodding at him first, then the greatsword wielder and then the one carrying the giant scroll – god knows what was in it. When the Konoha nin looked at Sakana again, he spoke up, suddenly sounding a bit more confident than before. The line came in as if he’d studied it extensively before going to Amegakure, or like he was repeating something off of a piece of paper. “We can’t. Going back now and going around would make us late to our mission. Going through Amegakure is the only way. If you won’t escort us through your territory, then we have no choice. I’m sorry, but we will continue on our way.”

“I see. I’m sorry.”

With rapid movements both Sakana and the tall jonin began weaving handseals, the tall one finishing only milliseconds before Sakana did.

“Doton: Iwakageiseki!”

“Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!”

Simultaneously, a large dome appeared from the ground, shielding the entire Konoha team from the intense heat that came from Sakana’s mouth, as he inhaled and then exhaled deeply, projecting a steam of fire that was so intense, parts of it colored blue. The fire roared and turned mid-air, but went right over top the earthen dome that split it in half, radiating heat over the top and off the back side.

After a full 30 seconds of continuing the jutsu, hoping to smoke them out, Sakana finally relented, revealing a scorched, but still standing earthen dome in front of them, blackened with coal-like dirt. A dirty black smoke rose from the top of the dome, before it slowly crumbled, revealing the four shinobi inside in a defensive diamond-formation – the large jonin at the forefront. He was clearly a master at defensive jutsu, but now it was time to test his skill in other areas.

“Drive them out,” Sakana said, making his plans clear to his team and the enemy team. This was not the carefully planned out fights that team 3 was used to, but it was exactly the type of fight they had excelled in in their previous missions – close quarters combat that allowed them to make use of their individual skillsets to pick an enemy team apart, rather than having to rely on a set-and-decided strategy. In this regard, team 3 was one of the most versatile teams in Amegakure.

But the Konohagakure team in front of them seemed to be equally as prepared. Skillsets might have differed, but they seemed more than willing – and ready – to take the team on, defensively at the very least.

Sakana would provide the opener, however, stepping forward before breaking into an outright sprint, closing the distance rapidly while reaching back and with a quick movement grabbing and throwing a set of shuriken at the enemy, which were all deflected by the genin with the greatsword, blocking all of them with a single move. Again Sakana reached back, this time grabbing his two daggers, one in each hands. When he came close enough, he rushed to slash at one of the genin, but found his attack blocked again – this time by the jonin, whose arms were now clad in rock. With a single move, the jonin stopped his attack by putting his arm in the way.

What he had not seen coming, however, was the kick that followed, hitting him hard in the side of the head and sending him sliding to the right, away from his team. After that, it was easy for Sakana to manoeuvre towards him, stepping off against the ground before any of the other genin could do anything. He left the rest of the team to his allies, hoping they could further separate them.

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. Wednesday, 9:35

Amegakure Eastern Border

Once the fighting broke out between the resilient - and determined Konoha Nin, and her far more resilient and determined older brother, Unagi was quick to jump into the action. Once the fires died from from Sakana's Fireball jutsu, she prepared an attack to shatter the earth-dome, but that became unneccsary once it came down all on it's won, the four Konoha Shinobi flocking out of it at once. One of them focused Unagi immediately, she had noticed the extra-deep pools of rain water on the battlefield prior, but now it became apparent that it was part of a trap, as two figures emerged from the water.

"Hiding in Water; Chain Capture Technique!" The Genin's three bodies bursted through, the one who didn't carry any weapons was the one who would be Unagis opponent. The steel chain was wrapped tightly, the two water-clones, she presumed, stood opposite sides of her, holding the chain that was now locked tight around her, she winced a little at the tightness and mostly bothered by how cold the chains were.
"Oh my. I'm locked down tight, huh. I guess I really messed up this time..."

The genin whistled and nodded towards his comrade with the greatsword, whom saw the captured Kunochi and grinned, drawing his blade, he lept from the ground, going to crush Unagi with a big swing.

As the blade came towards her, she flexed her hands, unleashing her jutsu
"Raiton: Stormcloud Defense" The lightning surged from her body, slacking the chains and traveling the electricity through the metal chain all the way into both of the water-clones, making them both explode instantly. The sword-wielding genin was now in the air and on the way to Unagi.

"Ah, freedom. That's a lot better. And now you, you double-teaming douchebag!" She first exclaimed, getting more serious at the incoming threat in the air.
She spun-around and lightning appeared on her heel.
"Raiton: Thunder Axe"
delivering the heel-kick to the broadside of his sword as he came in contact with her, deflecting the blade - and the genin, before he could hit her, or the ground. He was separated from his blade and his teammates, the one who had held her captured was busy fighting one of Unagis teammates, leaving the younger of the Uragiri siblings into a beautiful one-on-one scenario. She knew full well she could probably have just finished the guy off with a kunai to the throat - he was wide open, after all. But the genin was able to deflect Sakanas attacks, so he could at least provide her a good workout.

She used her Pack-A-Punch technique and lightning sparked from her knuckles as she got ready to charge him with a series of quick jabs, kicks and punches that the genin with the big sword found very hard to deflect. But he kept his defense up and was only dealt glancing blows by the chunnin, even manging to go on the offense for a second, something Unagi found amusing. He tore up the scenario with his blade.

"Oh my, you really do have quite the big... Sword, huh." Unagi taunted, throwing her hair to the side and out of the way in a act of non-chalance to her opponent.

"But I believe it's time to get serious here." She smiled, the genin got worried, further stressed. He unleashed his attack and Unagi did the handseals required, putting her hand to her mouth and unleashing her wind-technique.

Fuuton: Gale Breath
Her wind jutsu blew the genin into the tree behind him hard enough to seemingly knock him out cold. She dusted her hands off and declared it a won fight, turning to help the rest of her team.

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. Wednesday, 9:46

Amegakure Border .

It was always exhilarating when that first hint of combat became certain. Like a sugar rush, it made his heart dance and his palms nice and hot. Then again, perhaps that was Sakana-Sensei's insane jutsu, sometimes Gareki mistook the two. As cool as ever, Sakana took charge and dished out his desires; nice and simple just like Gareki liked it. "On it, Sensei!" He sprinted off to the right, noting the diamond-formation they had chosen. He brandished Kenma, leaving his Starved Arm free at his side, "Raiton: BE CUT DOWN!". A jolt of lightning covered the sharpened slab of metal and its chirping shrieks shredded his ears as he flanked the Leaf team. The drain of chakra was near immediate, might've been a bad idea but his gut was rarely wrong.

Sakana-sensei proved himself a threat, quick and agile he established the flow of battle. The Jonin was quick and not long afterwards, one of the Genin took too attacking, Unagi. Bad move. The show was revealing, the Genin might be really, really inexperienced. If the scroll was important, like his gut was screaming to him; then double-teaming an opponent, even for a second, was incredibly dangerous.

Gareki would capitalize on that best he could. "TRY AND BLOCK THIS, SAPLINGS! he barked, hopefully drawing attention to his attack and giving breath and time for Mura or Sakana to devise some smarty-pants plan. Coming in lower than normal towards the Jonin and scroll-wielding Genin, he showcased his strength by swinging Kenma with one hand. It arced towards the Jonin first but was well capable of reaching the scroll-wielder who was sticking close.

The results was disappointing. The Jonin was quicker than he thought, rather, Gareki overestimated himself... again.

The Jonin kicked his Genin's feet from under him, the two ducking so low that Kenma simply passed overhead. The momentum sent Gareki in a controlled twirl off a meter or two away. "Crapstorm," he hissed. "Sensei, I'm taking scroll-guy here!" he yelled as he launched himself at the two, Kenma being a javelin to split them up.

In a panic, the Genin launched himself away from the Jonin, and Gareki bounced after him with less-than-a-second between the reactionary escape. The sapling skidded to a stop several meters away, eyes always on him. He placed the scroll down, looking for help or backup. "None of that's coming, Little Leaf. You're stuck with me." Gareki scuffed the toe of his shoe on the ground feigning boredom.

He stepped in front of the scroll cautiously. "That's good. I don't think I could handle another one of you goofs. But an idiot who yells out his own strats, yeah, that's easier." From out his too-large sleeves the Leaf Genin pulled a thin-scroll out, unfurled it, and in the same motion summoned a swarm of bees. All of them fitted with a tiny-tiny scarves. He reached into his pouched and pulled out a kunai as well, a deep exhaled following. "Yeah, looks to me liked you picked off the wrong, "sapling"."

Gareki fixed him with a sharp grin; a passion igniting in his chest. "Ahh, I wouldn't say all that. You leaf folk tend to dig your own graves."

The Genin sucked in a deep breath, "We don't have time for this! KATON: FIRE BALL JUTSU" and just like that, Gareki could already see victory. He stuck Kenma into the ground waiting out the considerably weaker ball of fire. When the flames stopped and the buzzing of bees managed to parade around him, he removed the super-heated Kenma and went on the offensive. Kenma was spun overhead, creating an umbrella of deterring heat. Pulling back his starved arm, he smirked, "Suiton: Starved Raindrops," and swung bullets of racing water towards the Genin. A host of bees fell defending him and at least two of the weakened bullets hit the Genin in his chest and shoulder.

He grunted and scowled as more bees converged in front of him. "Okay, maybe you're not all that dumb."

"Digging your own grave." he replied coolly.

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. Wednesday, 9:53

Amegakure Border .

The fight progressed rapidly, with the shinobi eventually being forced apart precisely like Sakana wanted. For a brief moment, Sakana’s fight with the jonin was interrupted by the scroll-wielding shinobi, trying to stick to the formation, but ultimately he was forced away from the jonin by Gareki, who was doing a good job at proving his worth. Not that that changed Sakana’s opinion on the matter of a chunin exam…

The jonin opposite Sakana gritted his teeth, staring at Sakana while his team was being chased around. For a brief moment the jonins eyes flashed towards Shogai – and his opponent – before he looked at Sakana again. Just in time to catch Sakana approaching, faster than he had expected of the black eyed shinobi. “So fast!” he blurted out, crossing his arms in front of him, rock being pulled towards them from the ground. It was just enough to stop the full force of Sakana’s fist crashing against him, connecting with the rock momentarily before he pulled his fist back. But, in a showing of taijutsu skill, Sakana immediately followed up with a roundhouse kick, hitting the jonin in the side. The kick didn’t stop there – Sakana followed through with the momentum, jumped up a little, and then used his other leg to kick the jonin in the head once more.

“Hard to believe that Konohagakure has such unskilled jonin,” Sakana stated matter of factly, the mention of which made the jonin’s face scrunch into an angered expression.

While the rest of his team was getting taken out or driven away from him one by one, the jonin instead chose to bad mouth Sakana – if one could call it that – saying “I’m definitely a jonin! You watch!”

Telegraphed in the way only an overconfident moron could telegraph something, the jonin charged forwards, using his stone-clad arms like makeshift clubs, swinging them wildly around aiming roughly for Sakana. But, rather than hit him, Sakana merely dodged left and right, moving under the arms when needed. This wasn’t even a showing of skill anymore – Sakana was good, but barely needed to exert any effort for this type of attack. And, truthfully, even Gareki, being only a genin, would’ve been able to dodge these attacks with ease.

Finally Sakana broke the theatrical play, dodging to the left, grabbing the jonin’s left arm with his right hand when it was extended to the place Sakana had just been at, and firmly delivered a single strike with an open palm with his left hand, striking the only place of the arm that wasn’t covered by rock – the elbow. He even held back some of his power, so that the arm wouldn’t be broken – the healing of which could be a death sentence to any shinobi’s career – and instead was only severely hurt, but at least not permanently.

Immediately Sakana followed that up, not even offering the jonin a chance to breathe or yell in pain, swiping him off his feet with a well placed axe-kick towards the man’s heels, forcing his feet forwards while he pushed the man’s arms backwards, forcing him onto his back. Sakana dove on top of him, his left hand moving swiftly to grab the man’s collar while his right reached back, then moved up high, spinning a shiny metal kunai in his hand.

Prepared to deliver the killing blow, the kunai stopped spinning, and the hand jutted forwards, headed directly for the spot between the eyes that would deliver the most efficient deathblow.

“Doton: Delayed Burial! Stop!”

The appearance of the short girl with the two swords from the ground confirmed what Sakana had suspected, but had been unable to confirm. The ‘’body’’ in front of Shogai slowly turned to mud, sinking back into the ground. The real girl was a meter or so away from Sakana, stretching her arm towards Sakana, not in an attack, but in a plea for mercy.

“I had a hunch,” Sakana replied, his kunai lingering mere inches from the jonins face.

But even when the boy was facing certain death at the sharp end of a kunai, he didn’t end his talking; “Shina-sensei, what are yo—shit, I mean, Shina-san! What are you doing?”

Slowly but surely Sakana lowered his kunai from the boys’ face, remaining on top of him to at least exert some control over the situation. Never the less, the fighting stopped all around the battlefield – the sudden change in mood was noticeable even to those who weren’t gifted in an empathical sense. “The jig is up “jonin”, I know what you are.”

“Tsk.. how did you..?” the woman replied – now having been outed as Shina-sensei, the true jonin of the team. It was a smart strategy, Sakana had to admit, but her genin needed to work on their theatrics and skills. To be expected, however, of a fletchling shinobi team.

“Your “jonin’s” personality kept changing, only being confident after sharing looks with you. You also had the tiger seal prepared before we even started fighting, hidden by your sleeve, so there was some jutsu going on. I think it was telepathy,” Sakana said, slowly getting off the tall guy’s body, letting him get to his feet. His hands wrapped around his hurt elbow, an injury that would put him out of the fight for at least a few weeks. Despite the pain he must have been in, he looked angry more than anything, his brows furrowed at Sakana, a fire burning inside of his eyes. Angry at the man that saw through their tactic. And he had the guts to blame him? “Plus, you all looked at each other, and they all nodded at you, not at the tall guy here. Plus, he fights like a genin – an expert at defense, perfect for his role as the one taking all the attention from the enemy, but easily taunted and separated from his team.”

Perhaps looking back at their own fights, the rest of team 3 would also realize that something had been off – while the guy with the scroll and the greatsword were clearly fighting at the level of a genin, the woman with the two swords had been a measure above the rest, holding back her punches and strikes a little. It turned out that the ‘’real’’ Shina-sensei had disappeared underground at some point, waiting for the perfect moment to appear and assassinate the targets while her little genin kept the enemy busy. For Shogai, perhaps, a revelation that made sense… he had already seen her do it once mid-fight. Otherwise, the fight had been much too short to really ground through their strategy – even for Sakana, who had to think tactically at the level of a jonin. It was purely the fact that they were stronger than the Konoha nin that allowed them to end the fight and reveal the true nature of the shinobi.

“Hmm.. it seems we need to work on our team formation a little more. So.. what happens now? Will you kill us?”

“You leave Amegakure, and forfeit your mission. Tell the Hokage that trespassers will not be tolerated in Amegakure.”

“I guess there’s no chance you’ll escort us to the other side of Amegakure instead, huh…?”

“It’s against the protocol of Amegakure shinobi to aid and abet foreign shinobi unless the Amekage allows it. Getting permission would take a few days.”

Shina-sensei’s eyes turned to the rest of the team – only one of them was still up and running, the decoy jonin’s arm was badly hurt, and the bruiser of the team was currently unconscious against a tree – the hit from Unagi’s futon jutsu having sent him crashing against it and cracking the trunk in half. There was no way they could continue this fight.

“If it helps you decide, the official Bodagado will be here shortly to assist us, and they will probably be a lot more ruthless in encouraging you to leave.”

“Tsk, you Amegakure nin are something else… but I understand the situation. Mina! Grab Gai, and—”

“Like my sister said, 45 minutes north there’s an inn. Rest up there, and return home.” Sakana interjected, his tone being deadpan and serious, despite the fact that he was offering them a modicum of assistance. Had any other team responded to this alert, then perhaps the situation would’ve turned out differently – deadlier, even – but while Sakana and his “students” were cutthroat, they were not above maintaining a shred of shinobi honor when it was fitting. These shinobi were trespassers, but not their enemy.

“We’ll head there. Thank you,” Shina responded, bowing deeply before Sakana and the rest of team 3. She shared a brief glance with Shogai, who had been her opponent, grinning a little at him. Whatever it meant was up to him to interpret.

The bee-shinobi, who was revealed to be Mina – looked coolly at his equally cool counterpart in the Amegakure team, Gareki. “No graves today, gravedigger,” he said, pulling on a set of goggles on his forehead, before letting them slap down directly over his eyes. The goggles were blacked out completely, allowing nobody to look inside of them. “your sensei saved your ass… I was gonna deliver the sting of a hundred ages on you.” He turned around on his heels, walking off towards their unconscious buddy, slumped over against a tree. With the ease that only a shinobi that had made the same movement a hundred times could muster, he swung the big scroll around his body to the front, opening it up while it hung from his stomach, and unsealed it. A medical set that was equivalent to a shinobi hospital ER room‘s worth of tools poofed into existence on top of the paper, and he began tending to his ally, giving him a sip of a tincture that woke the boy up immediately, immediately going into a coughing fit.

“Did we do it?!” he yelled as soon as his coughing subsided, before his eyes caught the scene in front of him. Unagi, Gareki, Shogai and Sakana standing there while his sensei was looking at their “jonin’s” arm. “Aw, dookies..” the young boy mumbled.

It had been a mistake to take three young genin for a stroll in the rich and lush Amegakure forests. But with a strategy this bold, it could have worked. Maybe.

While team 3 was left waiting for the Konohagakure team to clear out, Sakana turned to his allies. “Good work. After this, I’ll declare our mission a success. We’ll go back to being on standby after that, so make sure to refill your tools and eat some food to fill up on chakra again.”

After about ten minutes of tending to the two wounded shinobi, the Konohagakure team said their goodbyes, offered a synchronized bow to team 3, and then jumped away, indeed heading towards the border in the north. Sakana directed his own team home, where they received confirmation that the trespassers were felt passing the border barrier only a few minutes prior.

“Let’s debrief at Shigeki,” Sakana said, “I’ll deliver the brief of the mission we just completed to the Amekage. You guys aren’t allowed into the tower, so I’ll meet you back at Shigeki.”

And just like that, without a goodbye, he jumped off through the rainy streets of neon-covered Amegakure, leaving team 3 on their own to make their way to Shigeki.

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. Wednesday, 10:10

Amegakure .

"Wait... so the Jonin was pretending to be a Genin the entire time? and the Genin was pretending to be a Jonin? why?" he asked on the verge of laughter. "That's just one big ol' crapstorm isn't it. I guess you saplings are messed up in the brain. That's not even strategy, its more like a guessing game of who dies first."

The threat of danger had passed, he could feel it which made his hysterical laughing all the more haughty. He replaced Kenma where it belonged, on his back and strode over to rest of Team 3; mostly shooing, Mina, and his insults away. "Shoo, shoo, little sapling. It's as if you knew you'd lose, got a whole medical facility packed away. No hope for the little Leaf Ninjas huh?" He bit back another spurt of laughter, his cheeks puffing while he covered his mouth.

Which made the bowing that would follow later a tad distasteful to Gareki. He never understood that, never really liked it much either. The whole honor-thing. The Leaf shinobi were practically sent running with their tails between their legs and they still had the audacity, yes audacity, to show respect in defeat. Gareki showed them his side, arms folded behind his turnt head, hiding his scowl. "Pathetic," he uttered.

Back at Amegakure, Gareki couldn't shake the displeasure he had in his mouth. Leaf ninja were suppose to be the epitome of strength or damn near close; but really, honestly, they were just for show. Maybe Team 3 was just that powerful but for some reason, he felt a tinge of twistedness about the encounter. It just revealed, he believed, how upside-down the world had become. How struggle had honed and forged him into a stronger, sharper tool.

Outwardly he shrugged and turned his frown into his signature smirk. When Sakana-sensei bounced, Gareki looked in the direction he was heading, tsking and shaking his head. "Welp, you heard, Sensei. Back to Shigeki!" he shouted, fist balled and skyward as he marched towards the restaurant. A deliberate chuckle escaped him as he feign joy in a believable manner. "Guys we should really talk about this whole Chunin Exam situation. You guys don't think I need it right? like I'm obviously stronger than a Chunin. Heck, I'm probably stronger than you two, we should convince, Sensei together."

All the while he moved toward Shigeki, making sure to not be late for their sensei's arrival.

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. Wednesday, 10:00

Amegakure Eastern Border

Unagi grinned as the genin she had fought, Gai, as she would learn his name was, was knocked out on the ground after her attack. She smirked and giggled. "Awww, he's all tuckered out. How cute!" She beamed, turning towards the others and watching her brother fight. She saw plenty of openings to join in and help, but she also understood that doing that would hurt Sakana's pride - and more importantly, piss him off more than any enemy shinobi could do. Instead, she watched the fight transpire, figuring out the ruse much in the same way Team 3's Jonin did. She blurted out "Hey, it's the gir-" before Sakana explained what was going on, and she let him speak.

Sakana sent the team packing, following Unagis earlier advice. Once Gai was helped by the medical ninja on the team, he was regaining conciousness. He shot a glare at Unagi, who smirked, winked and blew him a teasing kiss. "Come back when you'll actually be a challenge, cutie" She teased, turning to the rest of her team, eyeing her brother.

"I appreciate a little rest and relaxation while Sakana does the paperwork. Maaan, being a jonin must suck. All of that paperwork, huh." She said, as Gareki began talking about the Chunnin exams and then boasting. "You are pretty green. You tend to leave yourself open on the right side, you overcompensate with your right arm to protect your left. Could get you hurt eventually. Other villages have very strong people, too. " She analyzed, showing the same kind of cold-approach that was her brothers trademark, before turning back into her giddier self.

"'Sides, passing the exam isn't just about bashing heads. You need teammates, and we can't do it with you - so you'd be placed with people you don't know. And the first part of the exam's a written test. You have to be prett-ey sharp to figure that one out. Monik Hasagawa sure couldn't, which is why that stabby-bitch is still a genin." The bubbly Unagi explained to her genin-teammate, mentioning her former rival back in her Genin days in a rather spiteful way despite giggling about it.

"You might just have to impress Amekage-Sama directly to get promoted without the need for an exam" She joked, winking. "Let's go home."

They began moving to Shigeki to await their teacher. Unagi was kind of hungri and kind of craved dumplings.

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. Wednesday, 10:27

Amegakure

Team 3’s return to Shigeki had them re-seated in a fresh room, the normally slow restaurant quite accommodating. Of course, serving reheated stew would be reprehensible for any establishment, so a fresh round of orders had been taken, the team now waiting for both their leader and the long awaited meal.

After a brief wait, food yet to arrive at the table, the door to the restaurant slid open once again. But rather than be joined by their leader, instead, a brown haired shinobi girl in red and yellow, Amegakure headband on her forehead under her swept, short hair. Spotting team 3, a brief look of surprise crossed her face, but she didn’t hesitate for long, approaching the table as the second ninja to intrude in the past hour. Refreshingly, she wasn’t in a hurry, no particular urgency in her movements, but they were rather stiff and formal. Though the casual air of the quiet restaurant, bubbling and clattering from the kitchen clearly audible as work was being done, the shinobi introduced herself, stooping on to one knee, fist planted on the ground as she relayed her orders.

“My apologies for the interruption. My name is Tenjin Suzuko. I’ve been ordered to support team 3 on their next mission, and…”

Drifting from proper procedure, Suzuko had only just now noticed that she was only referring to part of team 3. One of the cell was missing, and Suzu didn’t think the commander was here at the moment given that the team was squashed into one side of the table. Looking over the bunch, she didn’t recognize them by face and name at once. She recognized some of her fellow Ame shinobi she’d seen around, naturally, and she had been briefed on the name of her teammates, but putting name and appearance together on her own was a minefield of awkwardness she’d rather not have to traverse. She hadn’t heard bad things about team 3, per se, but the individuals were of enough renown to go by various intimidating epithets despite not being much older than Suzuko herself. At most: one of the present trio was certainly younger than her. Suzu knew she’d asked to be put on new work sooner rather than later, but faced with what she'd asked for, she was feeling more like an outsider than she had in a while.

“...and, I’m about as privy to your next mission as you are, so I’ll stand by for the time being. Excuse me.” Standing in full, she took a step back from the table as the waitress came by, handing out everyone’s orders. Waving away an offer for her own order to be taken, Suzu merely kept at attention, evoking a sort of bodyguard as team 3 was left with their meals at last. Aroma reaching her nose, Suzu felt her mouth water, but maintained her will. Her stomach acted on its own accord however, rumbling ever so slightly.